cancer vaccine

HPV, hepatitis B vaccines key part of cancer prevention

(Newser) -
A sixth of all cancers worldwide are the result of potentially treatable or preventable infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites, according to a new study. Researchers found that that almost 2 million new cancer cases in 2008 were caused by the human papilloma virus, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and...
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Successfully blocked disease in mice

(Newser) -
Breast cancer may someday go the way of polio and smallpox, stamped out by a routine vaccination. A promising new breast cancer vaccine is moving into human trials after effectively blocking the formation of the disease in mice genetically prone to it. "If it works in humans the way...
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(Newser) -
After decades of false starts, doctors are tapping the immune system to help stave off cancer, USA Today reports. Using proteins from patients' tumors, American researchers have created a vaccine that can put off lymphoma relapses by 14 months. In one study, a cocktail of the vaccine and two other...
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Kennedy could be a candidate for breakthrough therapy

(Newser) -
A new vaccine more than doubles the expected survival time of patients with the most common form of brain cancer, Reuters reports. Although the test group was small, patients lived an average of 33 months—"almost unheard of" compared to the average of 14 months, says one doctor. The...
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18 patients treated without harm, some benefit seen in slowing disease

(Newser) -
A breast cancer vaccine is one step closer to FDA approval after a study found it produced no harmful effects in 18 women treated, and showed some signs of slowing tumors, Reuters reports. Neuvenge is meant to treat people who already have cancer by triggering the immune system to fight...
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Scientists who developed HPV vaccine work on a cheaper version—±±

(Newser) -
The same researchers who developed Gardasil—the vaccine that can prevent cervical cancer—have genetically engineered tobacco plants to produce a cheaper version of the vaccine. The new drug, designed for distribution in India and other poor countries, would cost $3 for three doses, as opposed to $360 for Gardasil,...
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Cite health risks in opposing vaccination of teenage girls

(Newser) -
A group of religious conservatives has marshalled unreleased FDA data as a weapon in the battle against Gardasil, the new cervical cancer vaccine. The data indicates health problems in women taking the vaccine, but drugmaker Merck and the FDA both insist that the negative effects are probably unrelated to the...
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Mandated for all girls in some states, HPV vaccine fails to deliver

(Newser) -
Pharma behemoth Merck is defending what it touted as a miracle cervical-cancer vaccine against charges of ineffectiveness. Merck lobbied states to mandate Gardasil for young girls—Texas and Virginia did—and got a glowing endorsement from the CDC. But new studies show that it works only to prevent sexually-transmitted HPV,...
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Prostate treatment recruits immune system to fight tumors

(Newser) -
A cancer drug that's the first to harness the body's immune system to destroy tumors got a thumbs-up from the FDA's advisory panel, the New York Times reports. If approved, Provenge, a prostate cancer treatment, would be the first of the "cancer vaccines"—experimental therapies that commandeer a...
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